Castle tower

# 1 26-02-2013 , 09:37 PM

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Ok... I'm somewhat beginner in Maya, so i need some assistance with my current perdicament. I'm working on a model of a castle, which is based on a Chateau de Chaumont (visite-au-chateau.com/chaumont/pont-levis.jpg). But as a beginner i'm having a large problem with the cones of the towers. My problem is that i don't know how to make those "curvy" cones. I'm kinda stuck on having, until i find a solution, normal cones with straight edges. So can anyone please help me with this. I do hope i explained my problem well, if not ask me to explain it better.

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# 2 26-02-2013 , 09:44 PM

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you mean something like this?

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# 3 27-02-2013 , 05:48 PM

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Exactly. Just a bit smoother and circle base. As for smoother I'm guessing a number of divisions wil make it smoother and base rounder(circle).

Last edited by MrWESS; 27-02-2013 at 05:54 PM.

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# 4 27-02-2013 , 07:06 PM

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That shape will round out nicely by simply throwing a smooth on it or by pressing the 3-key for smooth preview.

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton, 1675

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# 5 27-02-2013 , 07:41 PM

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Yes. but I guess the number of divisions will also do, if I'm not mistakin' . https://visite-au-chateau.com/chaumont/pont-levis.jpg See the blue towers. I don't know how to make that type of cone. Like I said i'm beginner.

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# 6 27-02-2013 , 08:03 PM

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this button will smooth=increase divisions.

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# 7 27-02-2013 , 08:14 PM

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Thanks. But how do I make that type of polygon you did in that image?

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# 8 27-02-2013 , 08:51 PM

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edge loops

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# 9 27-02-2013 , 08:59 PM

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A couple of things you need to know , when smooth your polygon geometry you maybe at level 1 so might need to up the divisions to 2 or 3. If you delete your history after you have smoothed the object then it will be permanent and you will not be able to go back to lower levels of smooth.
You would be best for now just to hit 3 on the keyboard to see a smooth preview (roughly what it would look like smoothed) ,then hit 1 to carry on modelling and not smooth the geometry until you have finished modelling and are ready to render.
Another thing worth noting is you can render a smooth preview using Mental Ray to render instead of Maya software renderer.

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# 10 27-02-2013 , 09:32 PM

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@mickah Edge loop adds divisions i know that, what I'm asking you is how to make that slide curved instead of straigh as it would be if it's a pyramid. For now i use term add divisions very loosely, so pardon my expressions in that... user added image

Last edited by MrWESS; 27-02-2013 at 09:36 PM.

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# 11 27-02-2013 , 09:56 PM

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scale edge loops...

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# 12 27-02-2013 , 09:56 PM

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To make the sides curved can be done in few ways :
1) you can temporarily smooth preview by hitting 3 on your keyboard with the geo selected, this preview can be rendered in Mental Ray.
2) Permanently smooth , again with your geo selected go to the Mesh menu and hit smooth with the divisions set to 3. If you do this and then after delete your history you will be stuck with this so i would not do this method until the end of your project.
3) you can convert your polygons to Subdivision. Under the Modify/convert menu hit polygon to Subdiv. Again if you are not familiar with Subdiv geo i do not recommend you do this because you will have more questions than answers.

I recommend the first option while still in the modelling process and if you want to render with Maya software renderer, only going for option 2 at render time.

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# 13 27-02-2013 , 10:17 PM

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Okay here is how to make the cone the nice way.
Go to create/poly primitives and select Torus option box, create a Torus with a
radius of 1
section Radius of 0.1
Twist 45
Subdivisions Axis 8
Subdivisions Height 4

Now select to top faces of the geo you have created and scale in sightly then extrude the face up and scale in again, repeat until you have your cone with straight edges.
One you have your cone you can now select it and hit 3 on the keyboard to see what it looks like smoothed, hit 1 to return to the base unsmoothed version.

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# 14 01-03-2013 , 05:50 PM

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Ok. i managed to get the shape i wanted. And I'm kind of embarassed i didn't think of this earlier. When i used edge loop tool to get more horizontal edges on my cone (right), i simply used scale tool on individual edges and that was that. Thank you all for your help. user added image

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Castle tower

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